Abstract
The purpose of this study is to analyze confirmation hearings for Prime Minister Nominees from the perspective of institutional conversation analysis, to identify what types of questions politicians use and their effectiveness related to the institutional context. The data consist of confirmation hearings for the 45th former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon and the 46th former Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun, and were transcribed and analyzed based on the transcription system suggested by Gail Jefferson. The findings show that a confirmation hearing is a highly institutionalized conversation that has legal regulations on the turn-taking system and time limit for speaking with a clear purpose of verifying the qualification of bureaucrat nominees. Questioners set topical agenda and strategically used questions in the form of polar, alternative, and close-ended with prefaced statements implying specific presuppositions to limit the nominees' answers. Questioners recognized and performed their role under the institutional context, and at the same time played the role of an intermediary relaying the answer to the listener outside the conversation situation. Questions have significance in that they are being used as an effective means to achieve the institutional purpose of the confirmation hearing system.
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